Available Technologies

There is a growing economic and environmental need for the development of alternative fuel sources due to concerns of sustainability. An ideal biofuel would be highly renewable, efficient as a fuel, inexpensive, and easy to produce in high volume. A problem with many biofuels, including ethanol, is that they can only be produced in certain locations and with volume-production constraints. Methyl butenol, though, has the potential to be manufactured in very large quantities, made almost anywhere, and will be relatively inexpensive if it can be produced in a photosynthetic organism. Due to its chemical structure, methyl butenol can be a gasoline alternative or a feedstock for chemical synthesis.

Michigan State University’s technology relates to the identification and cloning of the first genes encoding methyl butenol synthase and its use in methyl butenol production through fermentation. The methyl butenol synthase gene was isolated from several species of pine. Even though it was known that pine trees naturally produce and release methyl butenol in the environment, the gene useful for the enzymatic production of methyl butenol was not known until now. Thus, this technology provides a practical method for producing methyl butenol using methyl butenol synthase proteins and genes.